The game will initially take place in the (American) southwest with you controlling a band of desert rangers like the first game. The game will have scope and scale like both Wasteland and Fallout; it will be open-world in the sense that we don't lead you around by the nose; it will have multiple approaches to most things to avoid the moralistic "right" solution; it will be skill based; NPCs will join the group and not always behave like you want, and it will not require hand-eye coordination. Oh, and tons of weapons so people can shoot their way through situations instead of charming anyone.

The more of these I read, the more faith I have in this project. He gets us, he's one of us.

One of the things that saves us money is not doing cut-scenes. Those are incredibly expensive and time consuming and frankly, the hardcore crowd doesn't care that much about them, so that saves us a tremendous amount of time.

When asked about a console port:

I don't know, we haven't given a lot of thought to that. We'd like to keep it to a mouse and keyboard or screen driven, so I haven't though about a controller. We need to make sure we deliver on this title on the PC, they way that they want, so I hesitate to think about those versions.

GB: Unfortunately, role-playing games have lost much of their original identity in recent years, thanks in part to the popularity of first-person action RPGs. How do you convince a newer or younger RPG fan who has grown accustomed to the action-focused titles to give Wasteland 2 a shot?

Brian: Well here is the beauty of fan funding... we don't have to convince some younger RPG player of anything. I am making this game for the wonderful fans who put their money behind us and not some nebulous group of new people. Let's make the game they all expect and let the chips fall where they may. There is just no way I'm going to consider anything that could let down the core.

"Party and turn based combat is an absolute critical requirement for me. I like finding the right mix of Desert Rangers combined with NPC's and I enjoy the tactics that come from that dynamic. Players will spend more time doing combat than most anything in an RPG so it needs to be deep and rewarding. The skill based system is another must have to me as it opens up the world to be explored in ways that the player wants to do. You can have someone picklock the door, use demolitions on it, sneak over the back wall or try and let a rocket loose to blow the door off. A good RPG always offers many options for the player to move forward and with some of their choices may open or close off entire areas. I think the 3rd element is the way NPC's had a mind of their own within combat or game mechanics. The best storytelling often comes from the moments that happen from within the system. Almost everyone remembers when Angela Deth would empty an entire Uzi clip into a rat and completely waste hard earned ammo." - Brian Fargo

“Having more money means the writers will get to make the game broader and deeper. The bigger music and sound budget means more great music from Mark Morgan. It also allows for more varied environments, more character portraits and interesting effects like having radiation clouds that float move over areas.”

“In addition to more locations, we’ll have the manpower to create more layered effects based on what the player is up to. Cause and effect is everything in a good RPG so triggering based off more variables makes for a better world. This can range from having hundreds of different NPC dialogue remarks based on who is in the party, encounters that react to what you look like, scenes that open up based on how violent you were or perhaps how low your intelligence is. This kind of depth is what made Wasteland 1 so good.” -Brian Fargo

Wasteland enforced a distinction between the core group of player created characters and the companions that could tag along. The companions would largely control themselves and helped to integrate the player's party with the game's setting and quests. Is the autonomy and personality of these companions something you would like to expand upon in Wasteland 2? In what ways?

BF: I absolutely want to expand on the NPCs' self directed nature. I do want control to tell them to move, fire, evade, etc., and probably most the time they will obey. Some NPCs will waste ammo like in the first game, but I want to take it further. Some will steal from you, which will be funny to notice your canteen is missing. Maybe he will return it and maybe he won't. And you may have another powerful NPC in the group, but he just hates bikers. Walk into a biker bar and he starts attacking without regard for consequences. Those are fun moments for me.

Will the game contain any form of day-one or small DLC (not expansion pack-sized ones post-release)?

Hell no there won't be day one DLC... everything is going to the game as it should be. I feel like I've been taken advantage of in other games in which they tried to sell me stuff that was already completed. This isn't a free to play model. Now of course I might insist on a red boots DLC pack for fun.